Module 2 | Drawing Your Attention

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Module Video:

Identifying Emotions in the body

Scroll down for a transcript of this video.

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Managing Emotion!

Last session we covered an introduction to the components which make up our experience of emotion. These included situation, attention, appraisal and response components, which influence each other in cycles over time. We also introduced the process model of emotion regulation which highlighted the five stages at which emotion may be up or down regulated, and had a closer look at situational modification.

In this module, we will be having a closer look at identifying different emotions and how the ways in which we direct our attention can influence our experience of emotion.

IDENTIFYING EMOTIONS IN THE BODY

Previously, we talked about how emotions are subjective states which occur in response to a situation or stimulus. These subjective states are often nuanced, and researchers have identified a broad range of different emotions we may experience in day to day life.

We experience emotions via sensations in our body. In turn, these bodily sensations can be thought of as indicators of the emotion that we are experiencing. Let’s have a look at a couple of examples:

• While people differ in their experience of different emotions, people often report feeling joyful by laughing and smiling, feeling a flutter in your heart, and a comforting sense of warmth across your body and face. In contrast, people often report feeling worried with a racing heart, trembling, sweating and gastrointestinal upset (butterflies in your stomach).

• Research also suggests that different emotions tend to be felt across varied parts of our body. For instance, individuals often report feelings of depression to be associated with reduced sensation in the arms and legs, while anger is felt via increased sensation through the hands, head and chest, and happiness is felt across the entire body. Taken together, it is possible to identify our emotions based on our bodily sensations.